Here's to Never Falling
by timelucked
Summary: Donna finds pictures that rekindle the fond memories of a broken man.


"I found this," the Doctor peered up from his meticulous meddling, toying with the latest gadget he had found and trying to apply his sonic to it, blinking and licking his lips. Donna made her way into the sterile work room, her heels clapping against the floor. She slapped something down on the table. It skid with a hiss. "Who is that?"

The Doctor dropped his utensils and piled his tinkering tools beside each other, the metal clattering softly. He picked up the photo case and examined it like it was a new accessory to be handled. He touched it with an air-light grasp, his fluttering fingers moving about it softly. He swallowed.

"A friend," he replied, setting down the picture of a young woman, a Doctor like himself, even if it were only a lower case position. She stuck her tongue out at him, her hands clawing at his trench as he made to avoid the picture, his face broken with the lightness of laughter. The Doctor cleared his throat. "A good friend."

Donna stared at him for a moment. "Is that your friend-"

He cut her off before she could say it, "Martha. Her name...that's Martha."

Donna nodded. Slowly, she brought the hand behind her back up to the counter, sliding another picture face-down towards him.

"And is this," she said quietly as she slipped him the little paper. "Rose?"

The Doctor watched as her fingers left the black backing of the paper, retracting into herself as she sat, poised and calm, across from him. He stared at the picture, that tiny Polaroid for a moment, not quite able to place his feelings about it. His jaw working, he swallowed and reached out with his tapered fingers snagging the little sheet. He flipped it over carefully and his breath hitched.

The picture was one he remembered with fondness but kept stored away, sealed in the vault he never dared open. The vault in his mind was filled with the tears he would - and could - never shed. To release the bonds that held it would be detrimental to himself as it would flood his mind and surely drive him to a deeper level of madness than he already attained.

The photograph showed the two happiest people in the universe. Their faces were split in identical grins. Her eyes were creased in a way that almost looked painful as she bent at the waist with the toll of her laughter. He held her up with an arm around the waist as he too laughed about some joke or other. Behind them the sky was painted an airy purple and the Doctor knew that meant this was their trip on Glafaglow.

"She's very pretty," Donna noted, her voice soft, smooth. When he didn't say anything, when he simply stared and stared at the picture she pressed her lips together in a sympathetic smile and left him to his memories.

_"You're mad you are!" Rose laughed as she jogged ahead of him._

_"Oh, mad for you maybe!" the Doctor growled back playfully, making a lunge at his companion who squealed and dodged away from his grabby hands. He was persistent though, and would get her by night's end - which wasn't far with the shortened days on Glafaglow. _

_"No-ho-ho!" Rose mustered as his fingers made purchase with her sides. He tickled her senseless, Rose squealing and wriggling beneath him, all the while he beamed and studied her._

_Having had enough of being so relentlessly tortured, Rose kicked her legs around and managed to push him off of her. With her momentum though, she ended up rolling to much and dragged him with her. Gasping, she found herself perched astride him, staring into his stunned, chestnut eyes, the fringe of hair flopping backwards off his face. _

_"You..." she began breathlessly. He swallowed thickly, his hands meandering their way up her sides in soft caresses. "You did that...on purpose."_

_The muscles in his parched throat set to work, contracting and relaxing. "So I did."_

_He couldn't understand the look she gave him, but he knew he liked it very much. _

_"Who knew you'd be the one to fall," she muttered with mirth bubbling at her lips. _

_"Sometimes," he said, his eyes staring directly into hers, catching them with his gaze. "Falling can be the best part."_

_Her lower lip shifted past her upper as she pouted thoughtfully. Thoughts of taking it into his own mouth made their way into his muddled mind before she broke the train. _

_"Then here's to...falling," she said, leaning her head closer to his and sealing their unspoken analogy with her lips on his. _

The Doctor thumbed the picture of her grinning face, massaged and worked, trying to indent, that brimming joy into the pad of his thumb. "I've fallen, Rose. I've fallen so deep this time that," he whispered to no one, to her, to himself. To anyone. "I don't think I can get up." He stared at her picture and felt the dull throb of the one heart that had forgotten to beat since he had last seen her. That last moment, the only one he could allot himself at the price of a dying sun. "And Rose," he spoke with the pain of a thousand tortures. "I don't know that I want to."

He didn't get an answer and he knew he wouldn't despite the part of him that longed to hear how stupid he was about all this from the voice dripped in the deliciously tart South London accent. Coughing, he set the picture aside, scrubbing his eyes with the butt of his palm. Standing, he exhaled a long breath in a gust from his lungs and strode out of the room.

"Do you think there'll ever be a bottom to this...falling we're doing?" Rose asked, glancing up at him with curious eyes.

The Doctor stared down at her, nestled in the circle of his arms where she fit so snugly, so rightly. He gave an imperceptible smile. "No, Rose," he rubbed her upper arm. "For once, I don't think there will be."

She smiled, thrilled at this prospect. "To never stopping!"

_His lips curled. "To never stopping. We'll fall forever and ever and there won't be anything to stop us!" _

_And for the first time the Doctor felt like nothing could stop them. He would fall with Rose forever. And there was no power that could take that away. None._

The Doctor exited the work room, the automatic doors pulling open with a quiet whoosh. He rounded the corner and left and the roving Doctor never saw the picture fall.

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><p><strong>AN: **So what did you think? I really do appreciate input of any kind! Constructive is favored!


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